Rough Beauty follows a poet who retreats to a primitive cabin in the Rocky Mountains after a blaze destroys her manuscripts and possessions. Over forty seasons she learns to live with the land, confronting harsh weather, isolation, and the slow work of rebuilding.

Written in lyrical, observant prose, the book blends practical details of mountain life with quieter reflections on resilience, solitude, and the balance between independence and fellowship. Episodes of companionship, unexpected care, and renewed creative energy punctuate the wilderness chronicle.

For readers of nature writing and personal memoir, this volume offers vivid landscape scenes, contemplative passages, and an honest look at how place reshapes identity and relationships.

• Lyrical nature memoir
• Setting: Rocky Mountains
• Themes: solitude, resilience, community
• 320 pages; Scribner; Hardcover

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